Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-07-28
The third day, Gen. Lee determined

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description of the advance of Picket
brigade, when the field was ours. HI
said going over the field after thu
battle, with such a scene before
him, all, whether Northern or South
ern, would say from the depth o
their hearts, "let us have peace.
Could you have seen the scene that
saw, you would say with me, let Us
have no more war.
Here he described the work Of the
Christian Commission, like angels on
errands of mercy, and the enthusiasm
of the large audience was unbounded
LITERATURE OF INDIA.
Rev. T. B. Cherrington said: We
need to guard against the two ex-
tremes usually taken by those who
treat this subject. Fulsome laudation
by those who dazzle by the brilliant
gems forget the vast amount of absurd
trash in the literature; on the other
hand, the wholesale condemnation by
those who, disgusted with the puerile
and fantastic nonsense so abundant,
are blind to the excellent things that
do abound.
Few have any conception of the ex-
tent OF Sanscrit literature. A biblio-
graphical survey recently made by the
British Government has brought to
light ten thousand separate works. A
large body of competent scholars is
now engaged in the work of selecting
out of this enormous mass the por-
tions worthy of translation into
English. This vast body of literature
contains the results of three thousand
years of thinking by noble race.
Sir VIM. Jones, Sir John Miner,
Professors Max Muller and Mourix
Williams and our own Whitney
have given much of the best portions
to us already. Still more recently
Edwin Arnold has opened and worked
with most charming results another
vein, while Prof. Griffith, of Ben
ares, has added the great epic, the
Ramayana to our tongue. The close
connection of our speech with the
Sanscrit, both through the Latin and
the Saxon element constitutes an in
teresting bond of connection between
us and the Hindoos. Although India
has more than twenty well defined
languages, and many more dialects,
it has but one sacred language and
literature-the Sanscrit. These have
bound together the vast variety of
nations of the country as scarcely any
other bond could have done. This
language is even more to India to-day
than was Latin to the nations of
Europe at the Reformation. The
Vedas have been called the germ
from which the whole sys-
tenn of Sanscrit literature has
sprung. Not that the same religion or
philosophy that constitute the soul of
the Neda pervade the entire body, yet
what with natural outgrowth and
dummy grating every branch of the
whole system claims more or less con-
necti n with the Vedas. There are
four of these Vedas, all religious, all
poetical, as in fact nearly all Hindoo
literature is. Some critics say they
reckon only three Vedas, holding the
fourth to be only an expansion of the
tenth book Of the Rig Veda. The last
named, the Rig Veda, is the largest
and most important. 1t contains
1923 hymn-prayers and $50 verses,
divided into ten books. Some of these
prayers are long, some short. 1t is in
some respects very suggestive of the
Book of Psalms, in our Bible, as to
the form of its contents. The others
in order of importance are the Lama
Veda, Yafur Veda and the Antharva
Veds. As writing was not introduced
into India before the 4th century B. c.,
and the close of the Rig Veda
dates at least 1000 b. c.
it follows that it must have been oral
ly transmitted. Indeed, the pundits
OF to-day are required to spend eight
years in the house of a teacher in or
der to learn the whole of the Vedas
by heart. Max Muller puts the earli-
est of these writings at 1900 or possi-
bly, 1000 B. c., about the time of the
Judges in Israel, or possibly the time
of Saul or David. These writings are
not the product of single age, but
their composition extends over many
centuries, and consequently refer to
many widely different stages of a con-
tinually yprogressing civilization. Some
belong to pastoral or agricultural
age, and the hymn prayers seem to be
the natural outpouring of an almost
childlike type OF piety. Others pro-
duced in more intellectual period ex-
press loftier and more spiritual class
of aspirations and conceptions. (We
must omit from the synopsis all quo
tations made to illustrate the subject
The three grand divisions OF the Vedic
literature proper are i. Mautras-Those
portions consisting of prayers and
hymns addressed to deifcations OF the
forces of nature. 2. The Brahmanas,
in some sense corresponding to the
Book of Levictus in our Scriptures.
3. The Updaishdds, containing the
doctrines and philosophy OF the whole
system.
Next comes the department of legal
literature, chief among which are the
Institutes of Menu, consisting of fifty
six books. So largely do these books
enter into the daily life of the people
that there is no such thing as under
standing the masses until one has ac-
quired some knowledge OF these writ
ings. All affairs of civil, social, do
mestic and individual life are con-
trolled by these laws. Incidentally,
however, they treat of philosophy,
morality, astronomy, astrology, geol-
ogy, botany, medicine, and almost
every conceivable subject of knowl-
edge. Next come the two great ep-
les, the Mahabharata and Ramayana
The first contains 100000 lines while
the Had has but $4,000. 1t was writ
ten 500 B. C. Its chief value is in the
minuteness and vividness with which
it portrays the daily life Of the people
of the country at that day. The Ram
ayana has about 100000 lines. OF
this epic critic in the Edinburg Re
riew says: The word has produced but
five epics worthy of mention. Side by
side they are, Homer's "lliad," Vir-
gil's Enid" Dantes' "Vision," Mil
tons Paradise Lost" and Valmiki's
"Ramayana." 1t represents in Rama
ideal manhood, in Seeta, his wife,
.Io,I ,,a,ao,,hnaI Enr DOnA x,a, 80, -.